


I'm No Ghost

by saisei



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, F/M, M/M, Post-Canon, World of Ruin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:02:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26406940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saisei/pseuds/saisei
Summary: In all the world, Luna loved no one more than Ravus. He was her protector, her confidant, her dearest friend. Her duty and destiny were to help Noct and save the world; she was prepared to give her life.In her worst nightmares she never saw this: herself, pouring all her healing energies into Noct, so that he might survive; Ravus flinging himself between Luna and Ardyn, and continuing to fight while his life's blood stained his clothes scarlet; Ignis standing alone against Ardyn after Ravus fell and did not rise again; and Luna herself, passing the ring into Ignis' outstretched hand, knowing full well what it would do.
Relationships: Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Noctis Lucis Caelum/Ignis Scientia
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30
Collections: pine4pine 2020





	1. Luna

**Author's Note:**

  * For [autumnstwilight (sewohayami)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sewohayami/gifts).



> Title is from Puppet's Scribble/Without Me, my favorite LuNoct songs.
> 
> Originally posted Sept 17, 2020 for the Pine4Pine pining exchange.

In all the world, Luna loved no one more than Ravus. He was her protector, her confidant, her dearest friend. Her duty and destiny were to help Noct and save the world; she was prepared to give her life.

She imagined that after her preordained death Ravus would return to lead Tenebrae in her stead. Perhaps he'd marry and have children, and they'd lay flowers on her grave every midsummer and solstice.

In her worst nightmares she never saw this: herself, pouring all her healing energies into Noct, so that he might survive; Ravus flinging himself between Luna and Ardyn, and continuing to fight while his life's blood stained his clothes scarlet; Ignis standing alone against Ardyn after Ravus fell and did not rise again; and Luna herself, passing the ring of the Lucii into Ignis' outstretched hand, knowing full well what it would do.

By the time the rest of Noct's Crownsguard arrived with a handful of Accordian troops, Noct was breathing on his own, which was a tremendous relief, as Luna's power was utterly depleted. She had nothing to spare for Ravus, or herself, or Ignis.

Gladio, unprompted, used a phoenix down on Ravus, and Luna hoped against hope, crawling over to where he lay to touch his face, wipe away the rain pooling on his eyes like tears. As futile as she knew it was to pray to the gods, Luna begged them to bring him back to her. But too much time had passed; his wounds had been grievous. Gladio crouched next to her and explained that the magic could not recall a soul that had already crossed into the peace of the Beyond. Luna was grateful to him, but her voice snagged in her throat, rendering her silent.

Her mother had been murdered saving Ravus' life, and now he was likewise was gone. She had been left alone.

They brought Luna to Noct's hotel suite, where she was shown to a washroom and given clean clothes; her own dress was caked with filth and blood. After bathing, she was led to a small side room, presumably vacated by one of Noct's attendants, with a single bed and a narrow window, now cracked. She stretched out on top of the bedspread and fell into a trancelike numbness. Some time later, Prompto brought her a bowl of lukewarm soup and offered her potions for her injuries, but for the first two days she was mostly left alone: Noct and Ignis' needs were greater. Her grief consumed her, as did bitter thoughts of how unfair the gods were. How cruel and uncaring. She'd half expected Gentiana to appear and bless her with some wisdom or consolation, but only Umbra was summoned by her pain, curling up with Luna on the bed. Luna hoped that Pryna had found Ravus on the other side, and that neither of them would be as lost as she was.

When she finally convinced herself that her selfishness could not be indulged any longer, she ventured out of her sanctuary and found Prompto and Gladio worn thin from dividing their time between Noct – still deep in a healing sleep – and Ignis, who despite the horrific burns that had stolen his eyesight insisted on meeting and negotiating with Camelia and other city officials. He had trouble dressing himself and walking steadily, but he still gave Luna his very sincere condolences and informed her that he'd arranged for a ship to carry her and Ravus' body back to Tenebrae. He did not ask her, as Oracle, to try and save his vision or his good looks. Luna didn't offer, knowing herself to be too weak; as with everything else, she'd be useless.

And despite her gratitude – for their care and protection – she was still prey to bitter, unfair thoughts, wondering why Ignis lived when Ravus did not.

Ignis gently encouraged her to bathe, to eat, to comb her hair. He did not press her to talk about her feelings. She sat with him sometimes as he watched over Noct, and wondered what it would be like to never see him – or anyone – again. She supposed Noct might leave Ignis behind to seek medical care here. That would be the sensible thing to do, but she wasn't sure Noct or Ignis were guided by common sense.

Her ship left Altissia before Noct woke, but she asked Umbra to bring her messages to Prompto, to pass on to Noct. Gladio escorted her down to the dock in the pre-dawn haze, and as she drifted away across the now-calm waves, the ruins of the city were stained red as the sun rose. She felt like a coward, who'd tricked and betrayed her people. She had always known she had to be willing to sacrifice lives for Noct's sake, but the magnitude of what she'd wrought in Altissia made her feel like a monster.

As soon as she set foot on Tenebraean soil, the land's magic flooded into her. She hadn't even realized how utterly drained she had been, depleted of both power and will. Numb despair gave way to sharp pain, but with her head cleared and magic at her fingertips once more she was finally able to reach out for comfort from those close to her who likewise survived, while at the same time resuming her position as their leader. By the time Ravus was buried next to their mother's grave in the family plot, her grief was metamorphosing into a cold and all-consuming anger.

Her lands were ravaged, buildings lay in ruin, and trainloads of refugees fleeing both daemons and civil unrest in Niflheim arrived each day. In her absence, Tenebrae had been under the de facto protection of mercenaries and defectors from Niflheim's army. Luna would be a fool to turn away their support. Tenebrae had not been allowed a military of its own for centuries; like Accordo, it had been under the protection of the Empire, and that had been considered a good thing, allowing the development of a high level of art and culture in the peace of unprotesting submission.

But now, with its fabled architecture reduced to rubble, Tenebrae would have to change, she told her people. While she hated to ask them to put themselves in danger, the facts were that daemons now roamed the land with impunity, and everyone needed to work for the national defense if they were to survive until the King of Light vanquished the scourge.

She didn't know what her own role was meant to be in the Astrals' plan anymore; whether her death had been traded for Ravus', or if it had merely been delayed. When Noct arrived, laden with guilt over having been tricked by Ardyn into pushing Prompto off their train, Luna asked him offhand if he still wished to unite their nations in marriage. It had seemed crucial – preordained – before; perhaps it was still so.

He'd looked at her for a long moment, and then replied,"I guess."

She didn't have a wedding dress or flowers; the ceremony was private, held in the Manor's courtyard, the glowing swirl of crystals embedded in the stone now ringed by scorched and broken stone walls. She was attended by Maria and her granddaughter, and the officiant was her acting Prime Minister. She and Noct answered the traditional questions with the expected response of _Yes, I will_ , while elemental magic built up around them like a storm. When they were finally told to join hands and step together onto the altar, there was a clap of thunder, and hailstones were tossed through the air by a sharp gust of wind that made her skirt whip against her legs.

She felt Noct's magic entangle with her own, and for a heady moment she imagined hope spreading its wings over them, as if future happiness was possible. 

She would never have willingly let that feeling go, but it melted away along with the ice, as they stepped down and back into the world again. She accepted congratulations and sat through the wedding feast as if dreamwalking. She wanted to have done the right thing; perhaps she had.

What Aranea called her wedding gift to her new boss was the refurbishment of the Manor's storehouse into a headquarters of a sort. The ground floor had partitioned-off offices around the central meeting room where the tables for the feast had been laid out; upstairs housed living quarters. _Fit for a queen_ , Aranea had said, when she'd shown Luna the work her mercenaries had done.

After the meal, Luna and Noct retired upstairs, their departure accompanied by good-natured teasing and suggestive remarks. As she mounted the stairs, the enormity of what she'd done settled on Luna like a suffocating miasma. She considered Noct her closest friend after Ravus, but in many ways they were strangers to each other. She knew Noct had felt coerced and resentful about having his marriage a condition of the peace treaty, and now as she invited him into her stark, unfamiliar bedroom, with its whitewashed walls and scarred, stained floor, she feared she'd coerced him in turn.

Someone had left a bouquet of sylleblossoms between the two pillows on the bed, when there'd only been one there that morning. The curtains were drawn, and light came from a candelabra set on her desk.

It was mortifying.

"Have you ever played MoogleCrush?" Noct asked, apparently just as panicked by the weighty silence between them as she was.

Luna admitted that she hadn't. Noct pulled off his boots, leaving them by the door, and crossed to sit on the foot of the bed. Luna joined him. The game he showed her on his phone was childish but ridiculously satisfying, and Luna found herself laughing at the antics of her Moogle character as it ran back and forth, trying to match the falling crystals by element while avoiding the cactuars.

She leaned into Noct as he explained the tricks for each level, and didn't even realize until Noct put his arm around her. The touch startled her, and her finger jerked across the screen, sending crystals flying.

Noct pulled away. "Sorry," he said. And then a moment later he blurted out, "Don't think you have to let me do... whatever, with you. We don't _ever_ have to. "He gave her a wry smile. "That's all I want, really. For us to be the only people who decide what we want."

Luna knew she should tell him that she loved him and that she desired him the way a wife should her husband, but what she found herself saying was, "I want the time to get to know you, as you are now. I want... to court you, if we are to be more than friends."

"Agreed," Noct said, and held out his little finger.

Luna, who had not pinky-sworn to a promise since she was small enough to sit on her mother's knee, shook solemnly. She put the flowers in a glass, and they changed into pajamas and went to bed – to sleep only, though sometime in the night she wrapped her arm around Noct for comfort. She woke to find him holding her hand against his chest in his sleep, and was as charmed as she was embarrassed.

But time was not what the Astrals granted either Luna or Noct, in the end.

Two days after the wedding, they left for Gralea aboard a train driven by Aranea's mercenaries. Luna had faced opposition over her departure: the Tenebraean government argued that she was needed most at home, and should not be going once again into danger. Luna put her foot down. She'd been given divine guidance all her life, and her every instinct said she belonged in the fight against darkness.

Their arrival in daemon-ravaged Gralea was disastrous. Luna could recognize the various traps Ardyn laid for them, one after another, even as he mocked them over the tannoy. After battling fiercely through the corridors of Zegnautus Keep, she, Gladio, and Ignis finally reunited with Noct, and soon after their search for Prompto was successful. Despite herself, Luna started to hope. Perhaps her new destiny, the unknown that had replaced her death, was to work with the Lucii embodied in the ring to grant Noct the ultimate advantage he needed to achieve victory here. Perhaps by uniting themselves in marriage before the gods they commanded enough power to put Ardyn to rest.

She had never been in the presence of the crystal, but through Noct she could feel its power, singing out of the darkness of this place. Even in this fortress, high off the ground, she was able to draw on it to heal the others.

So when, in the midst of a desperate struggle against daemons that boiled from the ground in unending waves, Ignis and Gladio insisted that she and Noct abandon the fight and go to the crystal, she reluctantly took Noct's outstretched hand and fled with him.

But the crystal, like the Astrals who'd torn it out of the heart of the world for their own purposes, was an inhuman and unknowable force. As she stood before it, she knew it to be utterly alien to humanity, and ultimately indifferent – it was a force of life itself. At the core of the energy that she sensed roiling inside it was a profound weariness. It wanted to return to Eos and be free, after so many long years bound by the Astrals to the Lucian line.

She didn't have time to ask Noct how he perceived the crystal, but she knew from the way his grip tightened as he saw it that he was angered. Bolts had been sunk deep into the stone to anchor the chains that suspended it; Luna could see how power bled from each of those punctures.

"I need to go," Noct said, stopping so abruptly that Luna stumbled into him. "It wants me to." He drew in a ragged breath, and then reached out with his free hand to cup her cheek. He leaned in, and they shared their first kiss, bathed there in terrible power, the ring of the Lucii cold against Luna's cheek. When Noct pulled away, he let go of her, and tried to smile. "Wait for me?"

"Always," Luna promised, but she couldn't help tears of rage and bereavement as he let the crystal swallow him whole.

Ardyn arrived to mock her and she ran him through with her trident, but though he fell he bled ichor instead of blood, and rose to his feet as soon as the Scourge performed its parody of healing. He tipped his hat at Luna, mocking her, and summoned a spectral sword, intent on fighting her. She would have taken him up, even knowing it was futile, but was saved by the arrival of Noct's Crownsguard; Ardyn decided he'd prefer she suffer instead by having to explain to Noct's closest friends how she let him go. He laughed as he walked away, barely staggering as Prompto shot him in the back, again and again.

Luna didn't permit herself the luxury of mourning for Noct; not in this place, not at this time. The train and Noct's car were wrecked, so the mercenaries who'd come with them had been scouring the base for alternate transportation. They'd located a small airship which they promised would be able to get them most of the way back to Tenebrae. Possibly. (Probably, with Prompto's assistance.) Mercifully, the daemon attacks became less frenzied after Noct's disappearance – called off by Ardyn, she thought bitterly – allowing them time to figure out how to transport the crystal as well.

All told, three days passed before they could lift off, and it took another two to travel north in small, cautious jumps, skimming the treetops. Niflheim's great flying daemons, the ones that had ravaged Insomnia and Gralea, were rumored to be loose, and hungry; it wouldn't do to attract their attention.

When they finally reached the safety of home, the crystal was placed in the courtyard where Luna and Noct had married, propped up on the altar with great stones pulled from the rubble. Luna had the chains cut, but forbade anyone from touching the crystal itself. Its power bled from its wounds and dripped to the ground, making sylleblossoms bloom through the cracks in the paving, ruin made sacred and beautiful.

Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto were eager to get back to Lucis, but they stayed to help the mercenaries and Luna's meager military force prepare for an onslaught of daemons. Some critical balance had been upset, and the scourge was eating away even the daylight; every day was measurably shorter than the one before, and Luna could not hold back the night. Daemon-repelling lights were placed along a perimeter fence, and refugee housing was built.

Despite his eyesight not recovering, Ignis proved himself capable of creating a command structure of sorts from all the disparate groups vying for their people's safety. He deferred to the Tenebraean government for all decisions, as was only proper, but Luna recognized that without him taking care of the multitude of small decisions she'd have worn herself thin trying to be all things to all of her people: Oracle, healer, leader, diplomat, head of an army. But with the clearer mind rest and care afforded her, she found herself resenting him for his... presumptuousness. How dare he think he knew anything about her or Tenebrae.

One day, when they were in yet another interminable meeting about military fortifications, Ignis left abruptly, not even bothering with an excuse as he pushed away from the table to navigate with cane in one hand and the other hand outstretched to feel for obstacles. Aranea paused in her remarks, and an awkward hush fell over the room, eyes falling to the table as people pretended to read their notes to avoid noticing the blind man stumble.

Once the door had shut behind him, Gladio looked at Luna and shrugged, looking pained. "His eyes have been bugging him," Gladio said with a frown. "He gets headaches."

Luna had already made her decision; regardless of their location on the other side of the border, she supported taking over every former Niflheim military base that afforded a strategic advantage. Tenebrae was protecting Niflheim's citizens, after all. She made a note of this and handed it to her secretary.

"I'll speak with him," she offered, standing briskly. "I might be able to..." She let her voice trail off. Obviously she couldn't heal him.

But Prompto nodded and gave her a grateful, worshipful look, and his belief in her abilities made her want so badly to succeed, after all her failures.

She walked out of her administration building and past the courtyard where the crystal lay bleeding. Around her, the broken and fire-scarred walls of her childhood home rose against a sky that was already in perpetual twilight. The path divided, left to the royal library, whose wooden shelves, centuries old, were laden with nothing but ashes. She turned right. An archway – doorless, now – led into the vast reception hall, its three stories stripped of balconies, stairs, and roof. Her shoes rang out on the cracked marble floor as she passed through to the gallery, and then to the grand ballroom, which had been partitioned into "rooms" that housed most of her top government workers, as well as diplomatic allies.

She found Ignis in the space assigned to the Lucians, a windowless corner with just enough floorspace for three men to lie down in dubious comfort. He was curled up on a blanket, body turned toward the wall with his arms over his head. He looked smaller like that, his shoulders shaking with muffled sobs that even as she watched he attempted to stifle.

Her footsteps had alerted him to her approach, of course.

She stepped into the enclosure, but Ignis said, his voice clear and unwavering, "It's simply a headache. I will be fine."

"You needn't be in such pain." She was nearly certain she could at least offer some relief.

She was close enough to see Ignis startle at that, his back tensing, shoulders flexing inward, and his breath escaped in a miserable shudder before he could suppress it. "Your Eminence." He swiped his sleeve over his face, probably meaning to be surreptitious, and uncurled to sit up, posture straight, as was proper for addressing the Oracle and his Queen. Luna hated it. "My apologies. You needn't concern yourself with me."

As he spoke, he reached out, his fingers drifting over the blanket to collect the photos that he'd been curled around, trying to sweep them into a pile quickly but without damaging them further. Luna could have helped him, but she was frozen.

Unlike him, she could see clearly. Every picture was of Noct, or Noct and Ignis: fishing, in a car, eating meals, laughing, posing with weapons like mythical conquerors. Happy, carefree, close.

"May I see those," she said. Not a question, but an order.

Ignis closed his unseeing eyes, hands cradling the pictures. His thumb brushed over the picture on the top, inadvertently stroking the image of his own face, but the intent was clear.

" _Now._ "

She felt dirty when, after a long silence, he offered them up to her. He was practically kneeling at her feet, like a supplicant begging for mercy, but Luna had none. She rifled through the images, worse for the wear from being sobbed over, and then slid them into her pocket.

Her mother had taught her about the Astrals from a young age, and had been patient with Luna's incessant questions. Luna remembered asking why Shiva was prayed to by hopeful lovers, when she was the Glacian – love wasn't icy or cold, Luna thought. Love was warm and pleasant. _The gods are not like us_ , her mother had said. _They defy explanation._

But she understood now, her anger so chilling that she shook. "You're in love with Noct," she accused. "My _husband_." Ignis made no move to answer, either to defend himself or to apologize or to persuade her that she was wrong. "How dare you think of him like that. You, of all people."

Ignis' mouth flattened to a line. "I'd very much appreciate the courtesy of you overlooking my... inability to control myself." He drew a breath. "I regret every day that I was unable to save your brother," he added, his voice soft and infuriatingly sincere. "I know how much his loss pains you. How much happier you'd be if he were here with you now, and not I."

"I wish he was," she snapped. Her own grief, barely scabbed over, was too raw to be so prodded. She fingered the pictures in her pocket and wished she had even one of her brother. She wanted more than anything for Ravus to ease her troubled feelings, though she felt a guilty misgiving, as if Noct would have expected her to do better by his friend, and she was failing.

She recalled how close Ignis was to Noct, how solicitous and caring. Loving, even, though the thought made her stomach churn with guilt. What would Noct say were he here?

"I made quite certain that Noct never suspected," he said, as if that made any of this better. "I know he loves you."

Luna took a deep breath. "I want you gone," she said.

Ignis bowed his head. "As you wish." She could sense that he wasn't quite as submissive to her will as he tried to appear, and waited. An agonized moment later, he asked, "May I please have my photographs back?"

"What use are they to you?" She shook her head, trying to loosen a headache of her own.

Ignis didn't argue. Perhaps he realized just how thin the ice he stood on was, here in the Oracle's ravaged homeland as the apocalypse unfolded all around them. Luna turned her back on him and let the sound of her heels ring out as she walked away.

The following morning she was informed that Ignis had departed on a ship bound for Galdin Quay. Prompto and Gladio alternated between bafflement and frustration that he'd slipped away without a word. Luna imagined they suspected that she'd fought with him, but didn't dare ask.

She intended to burn the pictures, but in the end couldn't bear to see Noct turn to ashes. She put them at the bottom of one of her dresser drawers and forgot about them, more or less, as months turned into years.


	2. Luna and Ignis

"Guess what the cat dragged in," Aranea said, letting herself into Luna's office and then giving the door a rap with her knuckles.

Luna looked up, amused by the discourtesy despite herself. "I'm sure I have no idea."

Aranea rolled her eyes. "Lucian spies. Just like the old days." Luna refused to give her the satisfaction of begging for more information. She folded her hands together and waited. After a moment, Aranea huffed and rubbed her palms down the sides of her trousers. "Four-eyes and a pipsqueak. Picked them up along the train tracks heading out from Ulm, near the military base there." She raised her chin, as if anticipating pushback. "They're with my medic, but I got a feeling they need some Oracling."

Whatever Luna's personal feelings, she would never deny her duty. She stood and followed Aranea outside, accompanying her down the still-cracked road to what was now the airfield.

Over the past two years The Tenebraean Air Service had attained twenty airships, which when not deployed to slay airborne daemons were arrayed in long lines on what had once been the sports grounds of the national university. The gymnasiums had long since been converted to dormitories for hunters and mercenaries, many of whom were former students; the classrooms and lecture halls housed refugees.

Luna expected to be led to the university hospital, which still operated despite the two wings lost to the firebombing. But Aranea brought her to an airship instead. Guards were posted outside, and as they approached Luna saw Prompto crouched on the ground, his arm around a girl who was sobbing loudly into her crossed arms.

"Gladio's sister," Aranea explained. "My guess is big bro had no idea where she was haring off to. He's in for a surprise."

As clear as day, Luna imagined Ravus' fear and anger if she'd done something similar.

"She's fine, though," Aranea added, and then jerked to a halt. She looked over at the girl, and then back to Luna, eyes shadowed. "Is she?"

Luna couldn't sense any infection from where she stood, but she left the gravel track and crossed the muddy grass to Prompto and the girl.

Prompto saw her first, and tried to straighten, tugging at the girl fruitlessly. "Your Eminence." And as an aside, hissed in a carrying whisper that was nearly comic: "Iris. Stand up. The Oracle's here."

That was enough to propel Iris to her feet, making a quick bow before standing straight, chin up; military training, Luna suspected, but the girl was surely too young to be in active service.

"I just wish to check," Luna said, gently, and held her hand out to Iris. Iris clasped her fingers firmly, as if she intended to shake, but then went rigid as Luna directed the sacred energy to seek out any trace of the Scourge hiding in her. She'd been told the sensation was similar to being immersed in a warm effervescent bath. Pleasant and relaxing... unless the magic found darkness it needed to uproot.

Iris was untained, though, and Luna tried to give her an encouraging smile as she gave her the news.

"Prompto can show you where to clean up," she said, trying to be diplomatic. Iris had obviously been in the colder part of Niflheim, judging by her heavy coat and woolen trousers tucked into fur-lined boots, and away from amenities like showers and soap. Her coat was scorched and torn in a way that suggested at least one daemon attack, and her hair was matted and filthy.

"I'll wait," Iris said. "Thanks." She scratched at a graze along her cheek; Prompto pulled her hand away. "Ignis got hurt protecting me," she blurted out. "He's dying. Or worse."

Luna supposed she didn't have time to argue, in that case. She looked at Prompto. "Have the guards bring you food and water," she said, and went to join Aranea by the airship's heavily-bolted metal door.

"Can you tell from here if he's turned?" Aranea asked. When Luna shook her head, she gestured for two of the guards to accompany them inside.

The hull of the airship was built to carry MTs, Luna assumed: three rows of benches were lined up on either side, leaving the center of the compartment empty, perhaps for some kind of mobile armor. Daemon-repelling lights had been clipped up on all sides, providing a stark, brilliant light that Luna had to squint against. Ignis lay on his side on the floor, one wrist and ankle attached to a bench with chains. The back of his leather greatcoat had been clawed open, exposing great rends in his flesh that had bled copiously before scourge, infection, and frostbite had taken hold. He was shaking so hard from feverish delirium the chains rattled on the metal floor, and he didn't seem to notice their presence or approach.

Despite her feelings toward him, Luna hated to see anyone like that, and she hated that for her to lay her hands on him the guards rolled him onto his back – wresting a sharp scream from his throat – and pinned him down. She sat down at his side and pulled the glove off his hand, noting the insidious creep of black in his veins. She clasped his hand in both of her own, and closed her eyes, reaching deep into Tenebrae for the power to burn the Scourge from him.

The Astrals were stingy with their gifts and had no innate sympathy for people's lives and sorrows, but the magic of Eos came from all its living things, and it was... eager, in a sense, to be used. The crystals in the ground sprouted seeds and sent shoots thrusting up toward the sky. Every herb, fruit, and vegetable carried that magic, and passed it on when consumed.

When Luna called for the world to drive the Scourge out, she became a conduit for that unimaginable power. Her hands glowed with a pure blue light, and she channeled it into Ignis, letting her breathing slow until she was in a trance-like state, washing him slowly and meticulously clean. He was not the worst case of infection she'd seen, but she still took pleasure at his relief from the struggle against corruption. She knew the instant his thoughts cleared, because his eye snapped open and he stared up at her, the magic in him giving his scarred iris color once again.

When she finally started to pull back, after an unknown amount of time, she became aware of the discomfort in her own stiffened muscles. She shifted, wincing, and Ignis' gaze followed her. She wondered if he could see when imbued with magic like this, and what would be visible to him if that were so. She gave him one last check to make sure she'd cleansed out all of the darkness, and then let go of his hand.

He sucked in a breath, as sharp as if she'd struck him, and Luna felt the same regret she always felt on seeing his scarred face, that she'd been so utterly depleted in Altissia that she hadn't been able to restore even a fraction of his eyesight.

"You're safe," she said, as much for Ignis' ears as for the guards still holding him down. When she glanced at them pointedly, they let go, though they still eyed Ignis as if he harbored the intent to become a full-fledged daemon. "You've been brought to Tenebrae, and are welcome to stay as my guest in the Manor. I'll have a physician summoned."

Ignis' tongue flicked out as if to wet his lips, and when he spoke his voice came rough from his parched throat. "Iris – is she well?"

"Yes." Luna put emphasis on the word, the weight of her authority behind it, and Ignis slumped in relief. "She's outside with Prompto."

"Gladio's going to flay me alive," Ignis said. He started to push himself up, but he was shaking so hard with weakness that he wasn't able to sit until one of the guards assisted him. Even then he had to grit his teeth against the pain.

Luna wondered how long it had been since he'd eaten a proper meal. She didn't want to feel sorry for him; she didn't want his presence reminding her that she'd hurt him herself, solely because he had the temerity to have loved Noct. She recognized that he didn't owe her an apology; that the opposite was true; but it had been easier to simply accept her banishment of Ignis and his secret than have to confront her own selfishness.

Had Ignis felt he could turn to Luna, perhaps he wouldn't have been traveling through daemon-infested Niflheim with just a teenaged girl as his companion.

"I'll be quite upset if he does," she told Ignis. She nearly said that Noct would be even more upset if his friends were estranged when he returned, but this was neither the time nor the place. She stood, stretching as unobtrusively as she could. "Come."

Even with the support of two guards and with Prompto and Iris hovering in concern, it took Ignis long enough to reach the Manor that by the time he arrived a room had been prepared, and the royal physician had been summoned from the clinic. Luna left Ignis with Prompto and brought Iris upstairs for a hot bath. She let Iris choose clothes from her wardrobe, and then – out of earshot from the others – asked for her report.

Iris had chosen loose blue trousers which flowed around her legs as she paced. She began with rationalization, as if Luna might be sympathetic. "My application for the Crownsguard was turned down, again. And Ignis has been gathering as much information as he can about the crystal and Astrals, but Gladdy wouldn't let him do what he wanted, either." She crossed her arms, defiant. "So we left. And we were in Niflheim a full month, doing a bunch of research. We made sure to send all our findings back, in case anything happened. We were good at it." She paused by the window, looking out at the starkly floodlit landscape. "Finally ran into a fight that got the better of us. We won," she added. "But this time the daemons got Ignis."

"I'd like a copy of your reports," Luna said. "I am rather invested in Noct's survival myself."

"I'm not sorry for going," Iris blurted out. "Except for making trouble, and for Ignis getting hurt. But what we did was _important_ and no one else was doing it."

Luna wondered if Iris meant that as a deliberate rebuke, or if she were merely tactless. Examining herself and her own motives, she wondered if she had been serving Noct to the best of her abilities as Oracle by staying put in Tenebrae. Ought she to have ventured forth? The Empire had made no secret of destroying any havens or ancient ruins within its borders. Elemental crystals were mined until nothing was left but polluted ground; Magitek consumed, ruined, and moved on.

Knowing what she did now, she had to wonder whether Ardyn had been orchestrating the downfall of the Empire for decades – perhaps centuries – from behind the scenes. Very likely, evidence had existed which might have shown his weaknesses or shone light on his motivations. Luna had been permitted to travel to the havens in Lucis, but her movements in Tenebrae and Niflheim had been curtailed. Now, she wondered why.

She sent Iris off with instructions to deliver her data to Luna's secretary and encouragement to speak with Aranea about training (contingent on contacting her brother – Luna had no desire to start a diplomatic incident over quarreling siblings). Iris left with a very badly executed but determined bow, and Luna felt a momentary relief.

The problem of Ignis was not so easily resolved. The physician reported that he needed to undergo rehabilitation if he wished to regain full range of movement and be able to fight again. Ignis seemed to accept this. He thanked Luna for her hospitality but left as soon as he could walk on his own, to take up residence with the mercenaries. Aranea said that he performed the excruciating stretches and exercises in the spirit of a well-deserved punishment. He avoided Luna as much as was possible, but she watched him sometimes when he was unaware.

When he'd lost his sight, she'd been blinded herself by anger and devastation over Ravus' death. He'd lost Noct, and she'd castigated Ignis for daring to mourn. And now he'd considered pursuing knowledge in Niflheim important enough that he'd cut himself off from his closest friends. Luna worried that he was working so hard to get back into fighting condition because he planned to go back, but this time alone. She didn't think he wanted to die – not without saving Noct first – but he didn't seem to care if or how he lived.

She still had his pictures of Noct. She took them out to look at them sometimes, and wondered about the stories behind them. What made Noct laugh like that, or Ignis look so frustrated, or smug, or transported by the pleasures of canned coffee? Despite knowing the circumstances of their travels throughout Lucis, she thought Noct and Ignis looked carefree, and happy. Ignis' love was plain to see, if you knew to look for it; but increasingly she wondered about Noct's feelings.

She knew if there was to be any reconciliation between them, it would have to come from her. But when she tried to think of the right words to apologize, she was mortified to realize just how much she had hurt him out of anger and a willful withholding of empathy.

The easiest way to waylay him was through proper channels, summoning him to her office late one afternoon. He arrived precisely on time, dressed in neatly-pressed button down shirt and trousers; threadbare and darned in places, but obviously an outfit chosen for an official meeting with the Oracle. He stood tall and moved with more confidence than he used to, the cane natural in his hand. He bowed on entering the room, and Luna suspected he intended to keep her at bay with impeccable court manners.

She told him to take a seat, and then with her cheeks burning with a hot flush of embarrassment, told him where the chairs were.

His murmured _Thank you_ was sounded sincere and not like a rebuke, but she felt as flustered as if were. He sat stiffly, because of his back, and she wondered – too late now – if it'd have been more comfortable for him to stand. She took a deep breath, letting herself feel her connection to the land and its vast, sleeping magic. With that presence to calm her, she began speaking.

"I was wrong," she said, not wanting to be sidetracked by social pleasantries. "And I wronged you. I should never have treated you so cruelly."

"Think no more of it." She found Ignis' expression hard to read. He'd replaced his dark glasses with a visor large enough to hide most of the scarring around his eye, and he'd been trained – as she had – not to let his emotions show in public. But his voice sounded warm, even friendly. "I have long regretted that my lack of control caused you more grief when you were already mourning."

"I have your photographs here." She'd thought about putting them into an album, as a gesture of kindness, but then worried that he'd find that too awkward. (And how she'd attain such a thing in her ruined capital would have been a challenge, in any case.) She'd placed them in an envelope, which she slid across the desk toward him, hoping he could hear the noise and she didn't need to hand them to him.

He did angle his head toward the sound, but he made no further movement. "I have no need of them, truly. I'd assumed they'd long since been burned. If you wish, I'll take care of that myself."

The words weren't said like a threat, but Luna's heart still skipped a beat. "My wish," she started, nearly allowing herself to be goaded into making impossible demands. Ignis' scarred eyebrow raised as if in question, and Luna collected herself. "I want to visit the havens that you and Iris found evidence of – the ones in Imperial lands. I've been continuing my weapons training with Aranea, but I would still welcome a traveling companion. When you are recovered from your injuries, of course."

That earned her a frown, and Ignis leaned forward, fixing her with what Luna assumed was a stern glare. "That would be foolhardy to an extreme. You ought to travel with an armed guard. The world cannot afford to lose you, and aside from daemons Ardyn is still out there." His mouth twisted in a grim smile. "While I know you have every right to want him dead, I still do not want to see you slaughtered in an unwinnable fight with an unkillable daemon."

"I am glad you've agreed to accompany me," Luna said, employing the trick of smiling as she spoke to give her words warmth. "If only to save me from myself."

Ignis stared at her for a very long time, his fingers tapping on his knee the only indication of his emotion. Eventually, he said _Bother_ , very softly, and leaned back, asking to hear her plan.

*

Ravus had often said that Luna's flaw was her impulsiveness: she was not one to think through every detail. He'd claimed that this infuriating habit had come from her being too certain that Gentiana would protect her, and after the fall of Insomnia she'd finally started to wonder if he was right (though she'd never have admitted it to him).

Ignis had not been trained to rely on spontaneity of any sort, and he drove Luna mad for the two months he took to prepare for the trip into the Empire.

When she'd traveled through Lucis to visit the havens there, she'd brought one suitcase and bought a used car in Caem which she'd taught herself to drive. Umbra and Pryna had accompanied her, and while she'd been aware of the constant presence of Imperials spying on her, she'd been happy. Glad to be doing the job she'd been born to, and childishly gleeful to experience the wide open skies and landscape so alien to her.

She'd sent Ravus postcards, but after returning hadn't asked if any arrived. She'd needed to believe they had.

She hadn't had the experience of riding a chocobo, but that was the method of transportation Ignis chose. He put himself into what he said was _a great deal of personal debt_ to have two chocobos delivered by airship. Prompto doted on them while they were being kitted out with tack suitable for the colder climate, trying to sneak them greens from Ignis' personal supply, and he gave Luna riding lessons.

Perhaps out of guilt, Ignis had been acting as mediator between Iris and Gladio, and he'd managed to persuade Gladio to come down and see Iris: not to bellow at her and insist that she stay out of danger, but to see how she'd grown. Their reunion was very touching, with Prompto taking lots of pictures of the Amicitias sparring and practicing link strikes. Ignis, testing out the camping equipment Gladio'd brought, made a hearty stew for dinner which used spices cleverly to disguise the paucity of good ingredients to be found in Tenebrae. Luna spoke with Gladio about Lestallum's greenhouses and hydroponic farms, and asked Prompto to see if an exchange of technologies could be arranged while she was gone. Tenebrae had a surplus of refurbished Imperial armors, which were useful in dealing with smaller daaemon infestations; surely she could trade some of them.

Ignis was anxious to leave early the next morning, however: _Before Gladio gets it into his head to think that as Noct's Shield he needs to keep Noct's wife safe._ Luna slipped out of her room at six, drowsy in the darkness, and found Ignis in the courtyard, sitting on a bench facing the crystal, legs crossed at the knee and with his hands clasped atop. He stood when he heard her approach, giving her a nod, and led the way to the makeshift paddock set up in the library ruins.

Ignis examined both the birds with his bare hands, checking their feathers and beaks, feeling for any scars or malnourishment, and going over every piece of the tack. He made sure Luna was able to put the harness on her chocobo properly and that she was carrying her whistle – _just in case something goes wrong_ – and they set out at a brisk pace, heading south-east.

They reached the first haven late the third day, following the route indicated by Ignis and Iris' research. The advantage of the chocobos became clear the first time they encountered daemons and simply raced far enough away from them to be forgotten, and Luna was eager to have a place where they could camp without the fear of being attacked. The runes beneath the ground were dark, and the elemental crystals shattered, but Luna had brought the light of the crystal with her. She pulled the magic up out of the ground, fire and ice and snapping electricity, healing the violence that had been done to the land.

Luna was exhausted by the time she'd completed the ritual of blessing and the runes caught fire, but Ignis had already set up the tent, laid out her sleeping bag, and prepared a light but filling soup.

When she woke the next morning, the chocobos were groomed and enjoying a bunch of greens, and her breakfast waited for her on the camp table. She wolfed all of it down and drank two cups of tea; only when Ignis cleared the dishes away to clean them was she struck by the terrible misgiving that he thought he was here as some sort of penance.

"I can do that," she said. She stood, holding onto the back of her chair as she was momentarily swayed by dizziness. "You're not my servant."

Ignis shot her an amused look as he lathered soap onto a washrag, wiping down her dish and then rinsing it in the dishpan. "I am, in fact, a servant of the Crown," he said. "I always have been."

He had the good sense not to refer to her as his queen – Luna occasionally wondered if the haste of her marriage, performed in private as an act of affirmation and without any legally-binding treaties or agreements, meant her position in Lucis was nebulous. She was the Oracle, and the royal family of Lucis had been isolated and obscure for long enough that she supposed when Noct returned he might be best known as her consort, and not the other way around.

"Tell me about Noct," she said, impetuous but trying her best not to sound imperious. His expression shuttered. He looked down as he shook the dish off while groping for the towel with his other hand. Luna didn't want to feel entirely useless, so she crossed to go pet the chocobos. "Did he wash his own dishes when you traveled together?"

"He was often busy with other concerns." Ignis' voice was strained, but he kept speaking evenly as he worked. "A refreshing postprandial nap, for example, or a game."

"He taught me how to play one on his phone," Luna offered, standing on her toes to scratch her chocobo's neck. "It was an enjoyable distraction."

Ignis sighed, as if Noct was trying his patience all the way from the Beyond. Luna decided not to mention that that was how she'd passed her wedding night. The memory was a good one, but she suspected Ignis would be horrified.

"You did all the cooking as well," she went on. "Prompto speaks of it often."

"Sadly, those skills remain, for the most part, in the past tense."

Luna bit her tongue to hold back praise of the meals he'd made for her so far; she was certain he held himself to a standard to which not even a sighted chef could measure up to, not in this scourge-shrouded world. "What was your favorite thing to cook?"

He tapped his fingers twice on the work table, then began to speak as he put the tableware away (in the Lucian royal armiger, a mundane use of magic which still amused Luna to no end), and the cooking station. With gentle self-mockery, he told the story of his younger self spending years trying to master the recipe for memory lane tarts.

"I could not undo any of the tragedies that happened," he said, wiping down the emptied dishpan and counter top. "I had childish fantasies, of course, of slaying the marelith before it could harm Noct, or of somehow stopping the invasion of Tenebrae. Quite selfishly, I wanted Noct to be unharmed and untraumatized, because he was my charge and – in many ways – he'd been my best friend. I somehow convinced myself that if I could only recreate the sweets Noct _pie_ ned for, then... well."

Luna snorted at the terrible joke, making the chocobos _kweh_ in rebuke, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Ignis looking pleased with himself. The area tidied to his satisfaction, he pulled his cane from the armiger and headed for the tent.

"In the end, Noct was given the recipe from the Mother of Pearl in Galdin Quay. I made them for him once with that recipe. He was quite pleased, but I found the experience rather anticlimactic, shall we say." Luna imagined he must have been crushed, to have tried so hard to create a gift of his love, only to find it easily attained from a hotel menu. Ignis brushed his hands together briskly, shaking away water and memories, and pulled his gloves out of a pocket. "Now. If you'd be so kind as to remove your belongings from the tent, I'll stow them and we'll be on our way."

Luna told the chocobos she'd be back, and felt guilty and neglectful when they chirped after her for abandoning them so cruelly.

"I enjoyed your story," she told Ignis as she struggled to crush the sleeping bag tight enough to shove it into its carrying case. "You were very sweet as a child."

"Still unsoured by life," he quipped back. He was prying the tent pegs out of the hard packed soil, frowning when he needed to put his back into it. "Noct greatly valued his time spent in Tenebrae and his friendship with you. He'd return home from school and immediately search for your notebook – he never quite mastered tidiness, for which I feel obligated to apologize."

Luna looked at the mess of her sleeping bag, half of it popping from the bag in an uncrushable poof. "Our correspondence meant a great deal to me – hearing about Noct's school days and his friends, the shops in the city and entertainments like the cinema and gaming arcades. I had always accompanied my mother on her travels, and being confined to the Manor while I feared for Ravus' safety was... wearing." She gave the sleeping bag one hard punch. It remained unaltered. "Even under these most dire circumstances, I enjoy the freedom to go where I wish and truly take control of my own destiny."

"Indeed," Ignis said, and held out a hand. "I'll take that, thank you. It's been abused enough for one day." She handed him the bag, embarrassed, and it disappeared from his hand. "I will caution you to pace yourself, however. I do not wish you to work yourself to a nervous collapse."

"I'm stronger than I look, you'll find," she snapped automatically, accustomed to over-solicitous 'help' being used as a leash to control her independence. As the words left her mouth she realized how unwarranted they were, especially to someone whose presence she'd requested. "I beg your pardon."

"No harm taken." Under his hands, the frame of the tent came apart into neat sections, and the canvas was quickly folded into uncreased perfection. "What does the terrain look like here? Would it make sense to continue to the east, or turn toward the south? Are there any daemons visible?"

Luna looked out from the safe glow of the haven over the black landscape, squinting toward what the thought was the horizon. "We're not quite to the River Iyasja, but it will probably be easier to cross further south, especially if the highway bridge still stands. Your notes say we're looking for the dawn hills."

"Pity," Ignis murmured. "I imagine they'd be easier to spot if there were a dawn."

"No daemons, at least," Luna said. "Though we'll doubtless be waylaid once we're on the trail."

"If we can't outrun them, we'll fight," Ignis said, as if it truly was that simple. As if he didn't wear the scars from a fight that had nearly killed him. He placed the tent inside the armiger and then glanced around the haven, fruitlessly looking for anything left behind.

"Let me get my chair," Luna said. "That's the only thing, aside from the chocobos, who're trying to dig up non-existent greens."

"How we do disappoint them," Ignis said, judgmental. But Luna had already seen how much he adored them, and she fully expected him to slip them some sweet greens when he thought she wasn't looking.

*

In the legends of the ancient times, when the havens were first created by the Oracle and the Lucian King, they'd numbered a hundred: fifty on each continent. They were sacred, but had nothing to do with the Astrals: they were manifestations of the magic and power of the world. Prior to their journey, Luna had known of just the thirty that survived in Lucis. By the end of her travels with Ignis, which took three years in total, she had reawakened twenty more across Niflheim. Where once the ground had been barren, now lines of power connected the havens, and where people had lived in fear, now hope bloomed.

Ignis had cautioned Luna not to reveal that she was the Oracle, but that didn't stop her from being perceived by the people they encountered as a witch instead, and him as her bodyguard or apprentice. Before the apocalypse the use of magic was suspicious, something not meant for normal people – the devastation caused by Magitek and the daemonic mutations unleashed on the populace were proof of that. Luna tried not to be obvious about curing the scourge when they encountered people who were infected. She said their illness was an imbalance in their humors, or allergies, and had Ignis serve them herbal tea.

It had taken her far too long to realize that Ignis baked magic into every dish he prepared for her; not as potent as potions, perhaps, but more than enough to give her strength and stamina. He'd brushed off her thanks, saying it was nothing, and when she asked after the history of his recipes, he gave her a stained, dog-eared notebook in which they were all neatly handwritten, organized by main ingredient. (He also offered to teach her, but after one dreadful failure with a spicy pilaf he didn't suggest continuing. Food was too precious to waste.)

But even his steady presence at her side had, over the years, become a form of sustenance for her. She'd always been able to turn to Ravus and Gentiana. Later on Noct, too, had become her friend and confidante. She missed all of them, but as Ignis shared stories of growing up with Noct she was able to tell him about her own peculiar childhood.

When they had reached the twentieth and final haven, Ignis insisted that Luna wait until she'd had a good night's sleep before attempting any magic. She'd been tired enough that she nearly snapped at him just to be contrary – who did he think he was?

Answering her own question she realized that somewhere along their journey he'd become her friend. She cared about him and didn't want him to be hurt, but it was obvious in all his stories that he still loved Noct. Perhaps – though it pained her to think so – as long and as well as she herself did.

The thing to do, she supposed, as she watched Ignis make camp, was to ensure that Noct lived.

She unbuckled the chocobos' saddles and slid them off, trying not to get the lines tangled, and then started grooming. "Have we done enough?" she asked, startling Ignis' chocobo into chirruping at her. "Have we changed fate?"

Ignis looked over at her. They had a small portable generator now which was strong enough to power daemon-repelling lights. Luna found the lights harsh, but Ignis said he could nearly see her with them on. Though probably she was a blurry shadow blending together with the chocobos.

"I believe so," he said. "In the Citadel, there was a painting of the prophecy of the Chosen King that captivated me as a child. In it, the Oracle was depicted above the King, directing light down to him, which he dispersed to cleanse the world of daemons." He shrugged, and began building the frame of the tent, hands moving out of habit. "I was granted a vision of Noct's death as I approached the altar in Altissia. _By the power of the Light alone is the Chosen King made manifest. With the Glaive of Kings, the Stone of Legend, and the Ring of Light in hand, the Chosen's power will surpass that of even the gods themselves. By that selfsame power, with the True King as its vessel, the darkness shall be purged from our star, and dawn shall return to our world once more._ "

Luna shivered, hugging her chocobo to dispel the chill. "I do not find that a comfort."

Ignis gave her another look, as if she was missing an obvious point. "The Oracle was not in my vision. I saw the King alone. That has changed. The Oracle has returned the blessing of the Stone of Legend to the blighted world. That is more than enough – it is everything."

Luna burst into tears; she couldn't help herself. It had been a very long day, and suddenly she missed her home and her people with a violent yearning. She crossed over to Ignis and put her arms around him, resting her head against his shoulder until he sighed and hugged her back.

"I'm sorry," she said, because she was, for so many things. "When did we become friends?"

Ignis patted her with a soothing, familiar rhythm; it took Luna moment to place it as the same way he lulled his chocobo when she was spooked or unhappy.

"I believe," he said, "when you told me that you and Ravus tried to swim in the royal fountain."

Luna poked the back of his shoulder. "You did the same, you said, with Noct, in the duckpond." She sounded stuffed up, from crying, and poked him again. " _With the ducks._ "

"But we could laugh about it, together. It felt – " he drew in a breath, then let it out "– like a détente."

Luna closed her eyes. "It comforts me now," she admitted, too cowardly to look him in the face, "to know that you also love Noct. That we share him between us, and want his happiness and survival. When the long night is over... I don't want to lose you." Ignis took a moment too long to reply, and Luna rushed clumsily to fill that void. "When did you fall in love with him?"

He shrugged. "I cannot think of one moment. It was a gradual slide, over years. But I realized it when I started wanting what I could never have. I have made my peace with my feelings," he added. "Please do not allow them to burden you."

Luna huffed. "Oh yes," she said. "That's the lovely thing about friends, you can just ignore their feelings."

"Speaking of which." Ignis leaned his cheek against her head for a moment, and then let her go. "From what I can hear, our children are starving dramatically to death."

"Again?"

Ignis pulled a bag of greens from the armiger, and the pathetic _kweh_ ing increased. "It does seem to be a habit."

Luna took the bag, but before letting him escape the conversation entirely she put a hand on his shoulder and popped up on her toes to kiss his cheek. She'd seen him at his best and worst, in battle and dying of scourge, but she'd never seen him blush before. She counted it as a victory, and went to coddle their babies.


	3. Luna, Ignis, and Noct

After ten years of silence, Gentiana appeared to Luna in a dream to tell her Noct was returning. Luna woke chilled to the bone and filled with a heady combination of joy and resolve. She was prepared, she thought, for anything.

She sent Umbra to greet Noct with a message, and alerted her allies to set their plans in motion. She left Tenebrae for Hammerhead as soon as two airships could be readied, bringing Ignis, Prompto, and a team of dedicated mercenaries with her. Gladio and Cor likewise gathered their forces and headed out in a motor convoy from Lestallum.

For several years she had been, secretly, prepared to offer her own death in return for Noct's life: her own fated death, after all, had been taken by Ravus, and a superstitious part of her had felt perhaps that gift should be passed on. But in the ten years she'd had to rebuild Tenebrae and keep all of Eos safe she'd lost interest in being good and playing by the rules of the gods. She'd bent them to her will once before, and would again if necessary.

She arrived in Hammerhead after Gladio, and barely had time to exchange pleasantries before a call came from the hunter who'd gone to collect Noct from Galdin Quay. Far too late, she thought about what Noct would think about her appearance. Her hair was pulled back in a simple plait and had streaks of silver now among the blond, and she was dressed in trousers and jacket, mercenary-style. She was stronger now – fighting off daemons for years was excellent for the physique – and her face was, she thought, more severe.

Her spiraling inane worries vanished the second Noct alighted from the truck, and she saw his unkempt hair and beard. Gladio got to him first, giving him a bone-cracking hug before releasing him to Prompto, who clapped Noct on the back while propelling him into Ignis. Noct clasped Ignis' shoulder, head bowed, and Luna saw Ignis lean into the touch like a flower raising to the sun, a magnet finding north.

"Guess I keep you waiting," Noct said, his voice low. "Not that I wanted to."

Luna felt an absurd impulse to hold back and let them have the moment, but Prompto grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. "Look who else is here," he said.

Noct turned, and then Luna was clinging to him just as hard as he was to her.

"Ten years, huh," he said, regret in his words.

"A long time," Luna agreed. "But enough time, perhaps, to change the tide of fate."

*

At their last camp before entering Insomnia, Noct took each of his three Crownsguard aside for a private conversation – Gladio first, then Ignis, then Prompto. All of them returned with wet eyes. When it was her turn to walk with Noct to the edge of the haven, out of earshot, Noct gave her a wry smile and said, "I hope you're not going to offer to die with me as well." Luna's jaw tightened – how dare anyone try to die on her watch – and Noct put a hand on her shoulder. "Right. Never mind. Let's talk about something else. Tell me what you did for ten years."

Luna nearly laughed at him for asking the impossible, but instead she put her arm around Noct's waist and leaned against him. "I once asked Ignis to tell me all about you, and he said – " she tried to mimic his voice, both the shock and the resignation "– _all?_ " She shook her head. "But he gave me a very good education in you. I imagine I've heard all your embarrassing childhood stories. Apparently you were quite the terror."

"And he got in trouble for all of our mischief," Noct said. His words were strained, as if he was holding back a tide of emotion. "Did he tell you what a sulky teenager I was?"

"He did," Luna admitted. "But I'm afraid I was not shocked in the least. Or rather, I recall very clearly frustrating Ravus so many times with my temper and rebellious nature to the point where he'd just throw his hands up and stomp away. He wanted me to behave, and I was so dreadful at that." She took a breath. "I was cruelly unfair to Ignis for the first few years after you entered the crystal. I was grieving, and I couldn't bear knowing that he was as well. I apologized to him, and we've become quite close since."

"I'm sure he understood how you felt. He's good at that." Noct sounded hesitant, awkward like a twenty-year-old – which Luna supposed he still was, in some ways. Bahamut had only cared about imbuing the true king with sacred light to prepare him for the battle, but all Noct's relationships had been cut off a decade ago. Luna wondered if facing his own death was easier than accepting other people's lives had gone on.

"He still loves you," Luna said. "I hated that we shared that bond, at first, but in the time of darkness, we found great comfort in each other."

"Oh," Noct said, the word escaping on a sharp breath, his eyes narrowing as if she'd struck him. Luna was reminded of the wounded child she'd first met, trying to comprehend that the world wanted him dead; and the boy reaching out for her despite his terror, calling her name over and over as he was carried away.

Luna gave him a gentle shake. "Not like that. Not lovers. More like two faces of the same coin." When Noct remained silent, Luna put her other arm around him and pressed her face to his chest. "Did you know that about him?"

"Gladio told me a couple years ago," Noct said. "He warned me not to do anything dumb, and whatever he said to Ignis was probably a lot less polite. I didn't believe him. He never saw how fiendish Specs was about waking me up for school. Back when I didn't appreciate dawn like I should have." Gingerly, his hand settled on Luna's back, very lightly, under the fall of her hair. "Course, Iggy would never be untoward. If he had..."

Noct shrugged that speculation off.

"When we return, you should talk to him."

"Luna – "

"If we're not permitted to die, then neither are you." Diplomatic Luna might be, but she still had her temper, and Noct was trying her patience. "My brother died to change the course of destiny. Ignis sacrificed his sight to save you. I spent years restoring magic back to Niflheim. The gods and the Lucii can be defied – if you dare."

A pause, and then Noct started laughing, a deep rusty sound, as if he'd had little to be joyous about for far too long.

"I do owe you a wedding gift," he said, when his mirth had run its course. "I suppose I can give you my life. Would it be too much to ask for a kiss to seal the deal?"

"No," Luna said. She turned, keeping him in her arms, and went up on her toes.

They kissed until Luna protested that she was getting a crick in her neck, and she broke their embrace gently to walk with him hand in hand back to the fire, and his friends. 

*

The battle with Ardyn was, Luna thought, impossible to have prepared for.

But in the end, that didn't matter. Ardyn was Noct's concern, and their job was to make sure Noct had every advantage. She and Gladio had been born for this purpose; Ignis and Prompto had chosen and been chosen to serve their King. They kept the daemons away and fought through the Citadel to the throne room, where Luna caught the dark magic Ardyn tried to ensnare them in with the tines of her trident and returned their power threefold.

When Ardyn died at Noct's hand, Noct mounted the throne and allowed his spectral ancestors to imbue him with their power, his spirit growing even as his physical body weakened. When his father's ghost ran the last weapon of the Lucii through his heart, the sword jutting from Noct's back became a bridge leading to the world Beyond, and Luna's spirit flew free and crossed over.

Ravus was waiting for Luna and the Crownsguard, standing next to the Lucii, a glowing white presence beside all the black. Noct used the ring to draw on the crystal's power to put Ardyn's soul to rest, and Luna in turn reached out to every haven she had strengthened and the anchors of the crystal's power there, using that force of life to unravel the Beyond's hold on Noct's spirit.

She was exhausted when it was done, and found herself leaning heavily on Ravus.

"Be happy," he said, resting his cheek against Luna's head. "I have no regrets. Go enjoy your life with the King. And whoever else you desire."

If Luna turned her head slightly, she could see Prompto, Gladio, and Ignis standing together around Noct, their forms already starting to fade as their spirits returned to the living world.

"Life is too short," Ravus added, "to not seize happiness, however it manifests. You brought me joy, how could I begrudge you finding the same?"

Luna clung to him and discovered it was possible to weep, even in her spirit form. "I miss you," she managed to choke out. "There's not been a day when I haven't wished I could but talk to you again."

"You can," Ravus said, his hands rubbing her back as she sobbed. "I'm with you always. And I would be more than willing to figure out how to torment either of them if ever they harmed you."

Luna had to laugh at that, and shook her head. "I want better for you than to be my personal vengeful ghost. You deserve happiness as well."

"I'm with our mother and father," Ravus said. "And an entire bloodline of doting aunts. I am well, and cared for."

"I'm glad." Luna hugged him harder, but he was starting to fade, turning to mist and memories in her arms. "My most beloved brother."

The last words she heard in the Beyond were Ravus telling her he loved her back just as much.

She awoke in the throne room, seated next to Noct, who had slumped against her as if he'd dozed off at a particularly boring meeting. But she knew the extent of his injuries – she could smell the blood – and reached down with her will to pull power from the land. She felt like she was playing tug-of-war with the Astrals, and refused to give them any satisfaction. Noct's destiny was in _her_ hands, not theirs.

Despite falling into a near trance as she poured magic into Noct, she was aware of the Crownsguard arriving with potions and elixirs, and Aranea appearing to deliver her chief medical officer shortly after. That meant the crystal had been brought to the city; like Noct, it too was now released from the ancient contract forged by the gods.

Luna had one last duty, and then she was free.

An airship was brought level to the throne room, and Gladio carried Noct aboard, accompanied by the doctor and Cor's troops. After they departed, Ignis used potions on Luna despite her protests that she was fine; but given how her vision sharpened and the fog cleared from her head, she suspected she had been far more depleted than she'd been aware of. He didn't let her walk, either, instead taking her in his arms and carrying her down the stairs and out over the rubble from the ruined wall onto the boarding ramp of the second airship. Despite knowing the ground was sixty floors below and he was as blind as ever, Luna felt not even the slightest twinge of fear. She felt safe.

The airship was directed to land in an overgrown bit of woodland behind the Citadel. The crystal glowed brighter the closer it came to the ground. No human hands could touch it safely, but Prompto used a Magitek armor to carry it outside and set it, with exquisite care, on the ground. Its magic flared in a way that felt like relief, and the crystal sank into the welcoming embrace of the dirt after millennia imprisoned aboveground.

Immediately, the weeds as far as the eye could see burst into flower, and the trees' bare limbs grew leaves; as the airship rose over the city, making a hasty departure, green life spread out like ripples in a pond, consuming the city with shrubs and mosses, wild grasses and saplings erupting from the soil, sweeping away all traces of humanity. Passing out over the ocean, Luna saw the bridge to the mainland entwine with vines until it collapsed. Insomnia was now a sacred land, inviolable. Soon enough it would be home to birds and insects. Animals out of legends, in time.

And above the joyous eruption of vegetation, the sky became streaked with pink, the clouds glowing; the sun – at long last – rose. As the light struck the miasma of scourge high in the atmosphere, the particles burst into golden sparks, falling down like fireworks.

Around Luna, everyone cheered; hugs were exchanged, backs were slapped, a festival atmosphere took hold. The long night was over, and the apocalypse ended. If she clung to Ignis and allowed him to stroke her hair, it was hardly remarkable. They'd defied fate and survived.

Back in Hammerhead, Noct and Luna were given accommodation in the Royal Caravan, which was just like any other caravan Luna had spent time in, except cleaner and with its name proudly stenciled over the door. They both slept for days; when Luna awoke, she was wearing an unfamiliar dress that she had no memory of changing into. The neat stitching hinted that it was Iris' handiwork, and the fabric was soft and gentle against her skin, a comfort.

She was dizzy from hunger, so she made her way outside, where the guard at the door had her sit down at a table under an umbrella while they ran to fetch her sustenance.

The umbrella was necessary, Luna was delighted to find. It provided shade from the sunlight that washed the world in brilliance. Even the dry land here had burst into green leaves and flowers. In front of Takka's, a group of children were playing a game that involved stepping on each other's shadows. The younger of them had probably been born in the dark years, and had never known the sun.

Luna held out her hand to cast her own shadow on the ground, and the back of her hand warmed immediately.

"You'll burn," Noct said from the doorway. He still looked half-asleep, but he came and joined her at the table, taking her hand in his with only the slightest clumsiness. "I only saw the darkness for a few days – I can't imagine ten years of it." His thumb ran over hers, as if seeking comfort; Luna likewise could not imagine spending such a terribly long time without any human contact. The gods were cruel. She rejoiced that they'd been thwarted, and might perhaps sleep for eons yet, leaving the world at peace. "Specs used to always come at me with the sunblock."

"So I heard."

Noct took a deep breath and looked out beyond the wire fence, to the blossoming meadow beyond. "When Gladio told me about him, I wondered what would happen if I told Specs I loved him, too. Pretty sure he'd have said what Gladio did, not to be ridiculous, and that would be that. We always knew... as an only child, my father's heir, I wasn't going to get a choice." His fingers clenched around hers for a moment. "Don't get me wrong. I had a big crush on you as a kid, and my feelings grew the more I got to know you. I do love you."

"Now that we both live when we were fated to die," Luna said, "you can choose who you want. You could choose both of us, if that made you happy. Or neither, I suppose."

Noct made a face that looked delightfully out of place on his older features, his eyes crinkling up and the resolute set of his mouth quite silly as he grimaced. "I couldn't bear to lose both of you," he said. "So... not that."

"Go find him," Luna said. She examined herself closely, searching for any trace of anger or jealousy, but instead found only a boundless love that encompassed all, a lightness of spirit that she wanted to share. "Though perhaps speak in private. I'm glad my first kiss was without an audience and did not need to be a performance."

"It was a great kiss," Noct agreed. "Give me one for luck?"

"As a blessing," Luna corrected, but leaned over to press her lips to his. She could feel her cheeks flushing, and reached up to pet his unruly hair. "I love him as well, and want him to be happy, now that we get to create our own destiny."

"I like that idea," Noct said. He took a fortifying breath and stepped back. "You think he'll say yes?"

"He'll say it's improper," Luna predicted. "Tell him this is what I saved his life for, and I'll be very upset if he chooses propriety over love."

*

The day was both very long and somehow passed in an instant: one moment she'd walked out into the sun, the next she was holding hands with Noct and watching it set over the hills. She sent Noct off to go find Ignis, and went into the caravan, and waited.

She was just wishing that she had a book to read, or Noct's phone with its games, when Noct pulled the door open for Ignis, telling him to just go in when Ignis balked.

He at least had the good sense to wait until the door was shut before asking, "What are you so nervous about?" He probably meant the question sincerely, but it came out sounding frustrated and he reached up to rub Ignis' shoulder in apology. "It's just us."

"I do beg your pardon." And oh dear, that amount of chill in Ignis' tone meant he felt things were out of his control. "I simply – have never done this before."

 _Oh_ , Luna thought, and stood, even as Noct looked baffled and said, "Pretty sure you've slept every night of your life, except in dungeons."

Luna reached out, putting her arm around Ignis' back. "He's not actually making fun of you," she said. "We played phone games on our wedding night. Nothing more."

Ignis looked instantly chagrined, reaching up to pinch the top of his nose as if trying to ward off a headache. "I am most dreadfully sorry."

"I'm not," Luna told him. "It's a good memory. I needed friendship then, and time to settle my grief. My new husband gave me both." She raised an eyebrow at Noct.

"You backing out on us now, Specs?" Noct asked. His smile was evident in his voice, but his eyes flicked to Luna, filled with nascent panic.

"I don't believe I am," Ignis said, as if accepting a challenge.

"Good." Noct reached up to put his hand at the back of Ignis' head and stretched up to kiss him, awkward and clumsy and sweet. Luna suspected she ought to feel jealous, but instead she was simply filled with the delight of knowing that those she loved best loved each other as well. "Come on, this is easier lying down. You're too tall."

"I warned you to eat your vegetables back when you were growing."

Noct looked stricken for a moment. "I missed you," he blurted out. "I knew... I had to die to save the world, but it was hard. Saying goodbye."

"Don't," Ignis said, and Luna added, "Come to bed. This is the part where we get to live happily ever after."

Noct took her outstretched hand, and let himself be pulled in, held close between the two of them, beloved.


End file.
